Facebook has begun meetings with some of the largest banks in the U.S. in order to develop its own online store on the platform and is asking the banks for customers’ financial data.
Some of the banks include Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo — while other banks were reportedly in the meetings, but left due to privacy concerns, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Facebook asked for banks’ customers’ data including card transactions and checking account balances.
The social media giant has been aiming to get more user engagement by adding markets and encouraging users to purchase products and send money to friends or family on its platforms.
Facebook is reportedly considering a host of new financial features on its platform, including checking account balances and fraud alerts.
“We don’t use purchase data from banks or credit card companies for ads,” said Facebook spokeswoman Elisabeth Diana. “We also don’t have special relationships, partnerships, or contracts with banks or credit card companies to use their customers’ purchase data for ads.”
Facebook and other tech giants have been embracing potential legislation that would mimic the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, albeit a much more lax version, The Daily Caller News Foundation reported. (RELATED: Tech Giants Begin Embracing Privacy Regulations)
Facebook has specifically come under public scrutiny, particularly with the Cambridge Analytica scandal — when the firm had access to as much as 86 million Facebook users’ profile data it gathered in 2014, before Facebook changed a policy that prohibited gathering data from users’ friends without their consent.
The scandal and others, including constant reports of the company censoring conservatives, has led to the less daily and monthly average users on Facebook — causing a loss of $120 billion to the company on July 26, the single largest market dive in U.S. history, TheDCNF reported.
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